Aish

This a special Sukkot Birkat Kohanim Edition of your Aish Weekly Update brought to you by our Global Spokesperson Jamie Geller

“We had the privilege of dancing with Yonatan’s neshama.” — Rabbi Dovid Lau

Yonatan’s family dreamed of welcoming him home alive and dancing with him. That heartbreaking, unfulfilled hope was at the heart of Rabbi Lau’s words as the Erber family dedicated a Sefer Torah in memory of Yonatan Samerano at the Dan and Hytman Family Aish World Center.

It was an evening of remembrance, love, and the enduring connection between a Jewish soul and the Torah that will honor his memory for generations.

May Yonatan’s memory be a blessing.

This is your Aish Weekly Update brought you by our Global Spokesperson Jamie Geller. Wishing you a Chag Sukkot Sameach and Shabbat Shalom!

Seth went to the Aish Yeshiva. Sharon went to Aish New York on the Upper West Side. Separated by just a few years, they each found their way to the same mission.

Sharon and I also "share" an aunt. She is my real aunt and Sharon loves her so much she adopted her. That tells you everything you need to know about Sharon Damski.

Seth and Sharon are beloved pillars of Aish and Aish Ignite is their passion project. A five day spiritual retreat for women 40 and above, it is a taste of seminary, a chance to reignite passion and elevate wisdom. Sharon serves on the Aish Ignite Steering Committee and has been on multiple retreats herself. She does not just write a check. She shows up, she participates, she champions this program from the inside out.

Because that is what Aish Ignite does. It meets women exactly where they are and walks them home to their Judaism. I know this firsthand.

Seth and Sharon understand that investing in a woman's Jewish journey is one of the highest impact gifts you can give. When a woman is ignited, her whole family catches the flame.

We are so proud to call Seth and Sharon our partners, our pillars, and our family.

- , Aish Global Spokesperson

This is your Aish Weekly Update brought to you by our Global Spokesperson Jamie Geller

Some partnerships begin with a meeting. Ours began over food.

I met Diana first, bonding over our shared passion for all things culinary. Daniel came later. And it turned out he is a bigger foodie than the two of us combined. From that first conversation it was clear these were our kind of people. Warm, fun, laid back, unassuming, and the real deal in every sense of the word. A beautiful family of eight from Bal Harbour, with a daughter and son-in-law living in Israel, and a son who is a proud graduate of EFG@Aish. They are not on the periphery of the Jewish world. They are living inside it with everything they have.

And they are helping us document it.

Daniel and Diana are the Executive Producers of Aish's original Tisha B’Av documentary film series, and they have been our production partners from the very beginning, when we first dared to imagine that Aish could become a home for serious Jewish filmmaking. Together we produced October 7: Voices of Pain, Hope and Heroism in 2024. We followed that with After October in 2025 and the documentary While We Were Celebrating in 2026. The latested film explored the deadliest and most devastating antisemetic attacks over the last year while offering context, and bringing the Jewish and Torah perspective to bear. Empowering, educational, and inspiring. As all our films are.

Three films. Three years. One family who said yes every single time before we even finished asking.

That is Daniel and Diana. That is what it looks like when passion, partnership, and purpose all point in the same direction.

We are so proud to call them our production partners, our pillars, and our family.

- , Aish Global Spokesperson